Poems (Piatt)/Volume 2/An East-Indian Fairy Story
AN EAST-INDIAN FAIRY STORY.[FROM "OLD DECCAN DAYS."]
All day she was yellow and grey and thin; All day she was troubled with time and tears;All day she was dressed in the withered skin Of a woman who lived a hundred years.
All day she begged, through the heavy heat, For a drop of water, a grain of rice;But she sat, in the twilight, still and sweet, Close to the leaves of the blossoming spice.
At a fairy fountain dim in the air, In a garment white as a priestess wears,With a lotus-bud in her lovely hair, And her hand in the water, she said her prayers.
"Oh, well do I hide my beauty all day From the sun and the cruel eyes I dread;But the gods can see me when I pray, And I must look fair to the gods," she said.